Many active young women use oral contraceptives (OC) yet the effect on body composition and exercise performance has not been thoroughly examined. Researchers studying the effects of OC on female muscle mass have found that oral contraceptive use impairs muscle gains in young women, and is associated with lower hormone levels.
A continuing study of the differences among exercisers and non-exercisers during pregnancy suggest that exercising during pregnancy does not require "stealing" time from other activities.
Findings of a new study suggest a potential benefit of maternal exercise on fetal development because of the link between fetal breathing movements and the developing autonomic nervous system.
A new study finds that "mirthful laughter," coupled with standard diabetic treatment, raises good cholesterol and may lower heart attack risk.
Researchers have constructed a simple computational model (series of equations) to measure whether certain variables"”genetic mutations in proteins and "tau" tangles"”might be predicative of the development of Familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD). While no links were found between amyloid beta plaque and tau tangles, modeling is a useful way for better understanding the disease.
A study on the impact of social isolation on lab animals' response to cocaine suggests that isolation during early development alters the brain's sensitivity to cocaine such that when the animal reaches adolescence and is exposed to cocaine, it is more sensitive to the psychostimulant effects of the drug. Males were found to be more susceptible to this effect than females.
Secondhand tobacco smoke and smoke from cooking oil and wood smoke affected cardiovascular function of men and women who were exposed to small doses of the smoke for as little as 10 minutes.
Research at Ball State University's Human Performance Laboratory suggests astronauts' fitness program during extended stays in space should be modified to avoid extensive muscle loss.
Octogenarian women were unable to increase muscle mass after a 3-month weight lifting program targeted at strengthening the thigh muscle. The results are surprising because previous studies have found resistance training capable of increasing muscle mass, even for people who are into their 70s. An increase in muscle size translates to an increase in strength.
Accumulating evidence indicates that an increase in particulate air pollution is associated with an increase in heart attacks and deaths. The relatively new field of environmental cardiology examines the relationship between air pollution and heart disease. A symposium in the Environmental Factors in Heart Disease will take place April 21 at the Experimental Biology conference in New Orleans.
How many genes play a role in the body's ability to adapt to exercise? Mark Olfert of the University of California and Claude Bouchard of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center will answer that question and provide insight into why some people adapt to exercise more easily than others at a symposium at the Experimental Biology Conference in New Orleans on April 20.
One of the nation's oldest and most respected non-profit science organizations will provide more than $68,000 in travel fellowships to underrepresented minority students and scientists to attend the Experimental Biology conference in New Orleans, April 18-22. The American Physiological Society, which administers the program, has announced that 40 fellows will receive the travel awards.
When participants performed a mentally fatiguing task prior to a difficult exercise test, they reached exhaustion more quickly than when they did the same exercise when mentally rested. Mental fatigue did not cause the heart or muscles to perform any differently; instead, our "perceived effort" determines when we reach exhaustion.
Love is usually associated with the heart: Valentine's Day chocolates, for example, often come in a (stylized) heart-shaped box. But recent studies by neuroscientists show that love is actually very much in our heads. Hear about a series of studies on romantic love on Life Lines, the podcast of The American Physiological Society.
Inflammatory molecules known as cytokines can lead to the neurological and cognitive abnormalities and changes in heart rhythm found in patients with cirrhosis of the liver, a new study finds. The results of the study may also apply to other conditions where heart rate variability is also decreased, such as bipolar disorder and post-menopausal depression.
Training people to avoid falls by repeatedly exposing them to unstable situations in the laboratory helped them to later maintain their balance on a slippery floor. The study furthered the understanding of how the brain develops fall prevention strategies that can be generalized to a variety of conditions and could eventually help people, including the elderly, for whom falling is an important health issue.
Obstructive sleep apnea decreases blood flow to the brain, elevates blood pressure within the brain and eventually harms the brain's ability to modulate these changes and prevent damage to itself. The findings may help explain why people with sleep apnea are more likely to suffer strokes and to die in their sleep.
A vigorous 60-minute workout on a treadmill affects the release of two key appetite hormones, ghrelin and peptide YY, while 90 minutes of weight lifting affects the level of only ghrelin, according to a new study. The research shows that aerobic exercise is better at suppressing appetite than non-aerobic exercise and provides a possible explanation for how that happens.
A new study confirms that exercise can reverse the age-related decline in the production of neural stem cells in the hippocampus of the mouse brain, and suggests that this happens because exercise restores a brain chemical which promotes the production and maturation of new stem cells.
Young and healthy African-American men were found to silently develop hypertension earlier than their white counterparts, according to a new study. How blood pressure is measured may be the key to early detection. Central blood pressure, in the aorta near the heart, not brachial pressure, in the artery of the arm, may be the key to screening, the study found.
Eating too much fructose can induce leptin resistance, a condition that can easily lead to becoming overweight when combined with a high-fat, high-calorie diet, according to a study with rats. The study also found that leptin resistance can develop silently, that is, with little indication that it is happening.
The accumulation of fat in the liver as a result of chronic alcohol consumption could be prevented by consuming resveratrol, according to a new study with mice. The research found that resveratrol reduced the amount of fat produced in the liver of mice fed alcohol and, at the same time, increased the rate at which fat within the liver is broken down.
The American Physiological Society has established the Hurricane Ike Relief Fund to provide unrestricted grants of up to $2,000 to support physiology graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who suffered losses as a result of Hurricane Ike.
Steroid use has been suspected in sports where building muscle strength, rather than endurance, is paramount. Power lifting is such a sport. Researchers have examined the impact of anabolic steroid use in power lifters years after the athletes ceased taking the drugs. They have found that while physical traces of the drug no longer remained, changes in the shoulder and quadriceps still gave lifters an edge.
Exercise decreases everyone's insulin resistance and therefore reduces the chances of developing diseases such as type 2 diabetes. This study shows that even a single bout of exercise helps obese individuals increase their body's fat-burning rate and improve their metabolic health.
New study shows that transitions to aerobically-expensive behaviors in organisms living free in nature can have important consequences affecting the pace of aging.
Primary human cell study finds simvastatin at high doses may have a negative impact on the body's muscles.
Racing sled dogs are best known for their "mushing" each March during the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the world's longest sled race. They are the premier ultra-endurance competitors, covering 1,100 miles from Anchorage to Nome, AK, sometimes in just nine days. It is unclear how they can keep running despite heavy blizzards, temperatures as low as "“40°F, and winds up to 60 mph. An expert explains what he has discovered thus far.
Women are four times more likely than men to experience a broken forearm and require a cast (immobilization). To examine if casting had an effect on gender, researchers immobilized a limb from among volunteers of both sexes. They found men were able to regain 99% of their strength within a week of removing the cast, but women's strength was still 30% lower than before the cast was applied.
The coordination of two systems are key for any horse to walk, trot, gallop or race. The first are the lower limbs, which allow the animal to move along on a "spring-like" tendon. The second is a complicated respiratory system, which allows a horse to take in one breadth for every stride they make while racing. A team of researchers has been working to unlock the secrets of equines; their findings may lead to better muscular horse health & a new approach to breathing devices for people.
A group of sedentary and overweight older people placed on a four-month exercise program became more fit and burned off more fat, compared to older sedentary people who dieted but did not exercise. The new study also showed that when older people diet without exercising, they lose more lean muscle compared to those who exercise.
Mice given quercetin, a naturally occurring substance found in fruits and vegetables, were less likely to contract the flu, according to a new study. The study also found that stressful exercise increased the susceptibility of mice to the flu, but quercetin canceled out that negative effect.
In a study on fetal alcohol syndrome, researchers were able to prevent the damage that alcohol causes to cells in a key area of the fetal brain by blocking acid sensitive potassium channels and preventing the acidic environment that alcohol produces.
Glycogen, the muscle's primary fuel source during exercise, is replenished more rapidly when athletes ingest both carbohydrate and caffeine following exhaustive exercise. Athletes who ingested caffeine with carbohydrate had 66% more glycogen in their muscles four hours after finishing intense, glycogen-depleting exercise, compared to when they consumed carbohydrate alone.
New study examines the reliability of a test that is used to detect a banned substance sometimes used in sports.
A Finnish study of identical twins has found that physical inactivity and acquired obesity can impair expression of the genes which help the cells produce energy. The findings suggest that lifestyle, more than heredity, contributes to insulin resistance in people who are obese. Insulin resistance increases the chance of developing diabetes and heart disease.
A study investigating aging in mice has found that hormonal changes that occur when mice eat significantly less may help explain an already established phenomenon: a low calorie diet can extend the lifespan of rodents, a benefit that even regular exercise does not achieve.
New study in Physiological Genomics finds individuals with a specific genetic variation consistently consume more sugary foods. Study offers the first evidence of the role that a variation in the GLUT2 gene "“ which controls sugar entry into the cells "“ has on sugar intake, and may help explain individual preferences for foods high in sugar.
World War II-era physiologists helped solve physiological problems related to flight, research that helped pave the way for an Allied victory in the air. Dr. Jay B. Dean of the University of South Florida College of Medicine prepared a presentation on his historical research for the Experimental Biology conference in San Diego.
In one of the first clinical trials involving men 60-85 years of age, researchers' preliminary results indicate that weekly injections of testosterone for five months have a positive effect on the bone markers of older men. This is not the case for those receiving monthly cycled treatment. This is the first known study to report on the impact of bone metabolism based on dosing.
A new study offers, for the first time, evidence of the negative consequences of stress in the progression of endometriosis, most likely through an effect on the immune system.
In 2006, researchers investigating the interaction between the brain, behavior, and the immune system found that simply anticipating a mirthful laughter experience boosted health-protecting hormones. Now, two years later, the same researchers have found that the anticipation of a positive humorous laughter experience also reduces potentially detrimental stress hormones.
A new study finds that consuming EGCG significantly inhibits breast tumor growth in female mice. These results bring us one step closer to understanding the disease and potentially new and naturally occurring therapies.
Studies have shown that exercise has a positive effect on mothers-to-be, and no detrimental impact on their developing offspring. A new study further extends the knowledge of research in this area and has found that not only do women benefit from exercise in pregnancy, but their fetuses do too.
Study finds that backpack loads of just 26 pounds decrease upper extremity macrovascular and microvascular blood flows, and may result in a loss of fine motor control and increased fatigue.
A new study in mice has examined whether adverse effects of estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) are related to the doses used. The study found that moderate and high doses of ERT increased problems in the kidney and heart. The results suggest that ERT dosage may be an important determinant in a woman's overall health.
A new animal model allows French researchers to explore the sequence of early metabolic events that can result from some atypical antipsychotic medications.
Some seven percent of Americans have lost their sense of smell and with it their ability to enjoy the fragrance of flowers, foods and beverages. For individuals whose smell loss relates to the biochemistry of two common proteins, there is some good news. A team of researchers has found that a drug used long ago to help asthmatics can benefit some with smell loss.
A new study of female freshman dorm residents finds that that those who avail themselves of school housing consume significantly higher numbers of calories and more sugar and "” unlike their off-campus counterparts "” engage in higher levels of calorie- curbing physical activity.
Two Mayo Clinic researchers who study the role nanoparticles may play in hardening of the arteries and in the formation of kidney stones, will lead a symposium on how these super-small particles may affect the body's physiology. The symposium will take place April 8 at the Experimental Biology conference in San Diego.
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